Mermaid
by alloysius
Summary: On September 28th, 1994 MS Estonia, on her way from Tallinn to Stockholm, sank, claiming over 800 lives. Naruto Namikaze is one of the survivors, and years later, he's finally going to tell the secret he left on board. multiple pairings


Ok, major weirdness ahead^^ This was actually a prompt given to MysticalMachineGun, someone wanted her to rewrite the movie Titanic as SasuNaru. But she didn't feel inspired enough to do it, so she passed it on to me. I thought Titanic was slightly boring and over-used as a basis, so we started brainstorming to see what we could make of it. Then we came up with a dramatized pseudo version of the Estonia, and after a few interviews with my father about some shady shit that went on with family businesses before and during the (previous) recession, this monster baby was born.

translations and explanations at the end of the chapter, so don't worry if you're confused at first^^'

*

Wednesday, January 17th, 1990

Tampere University Central Hospital

After a patient is pronounced dead, everything suddenly goes very calm. The almost tangible, iron flavoured urgency disperses into numbness, as the medical staff, sweaty and anxious, must once again face the fact that they're not gods. It's especially bad if the 15-year-old son of the just-deceased is sitting right outside the room. Critical care nurse Wille Kemppi saw the boy earlier, blonde hair, wide blue eyes, just like the kids running around on the yard of Sampo High school he passes everyday on his way to work.

Crying widows he can handle. But kids, kids are bad.

*

For the whole drive to Hollola, Naruto keeps looking out of the car window, stares at the gray-white landscape flying by. He counts sings warning for gaps in the moose fence. He counts ways leading to Hämeenlinna. He pretends the tiny black dots on the edges of the windowpane are a miniature movie theatre. That's me, that's Kiba, that's mom. There's a dot missing. That's dad.

His aunt is talking, constantly, with a soft, reassuring voice and annoying descending intonation. His mom keeps sobbing and nodding. "…for as long as you need, you know you can count on that." Sob and nod. "…better for everybody…" Sob and nod. "… poor thing, he's not ready to go back to school…" Loud burst into tears and frantic nodding.

Naruto feels sorry for mom. He's never seen her cry before, and now, she is this shaking, sobbing wreck of a human. Naruto wants to cry, too. But not in the car, not with mom and Aunt Elisa. He has a lot of tears, but they can wait a little bit longer. Slowly the one-sided conversation in the front dies down, and they continue in silence under the rapidly darkening sky.

*

Minato Namikaze died at the age of 40. The official cause of death was a thrombotic stroke. His wife blames the doctors. She blames the Finnish Government. She blames the banks. She blames the recession. She blames the Russians. She blames Minato's father for getting him involved in the business. She blames herself. She tells her son all this, over and over again, in her sister's dimly lit kitchen. She can see he feels terrible; he doesn't want to hear this. He doesn't want to hear her snivelling and ranting like a lunatic. How horrible it must be for a son to watch his mother fall apart. But she can't stop.

"Your father, he was a good man. Not perfect, no. But he was good. He was only ever dishonest for our best interest, yours and mine. He never meant to get involved… he… Grandpa Jiraya needed help. That's all. He was such a good man, always helping everybody…" Kushina wants to strangle herself. She can hear her own voice, as if from another room. Someone else is using it. She wants to stop but she can't.

The glass is empty, again. Her hand is shaking so bad she nearly drops it. Naruto, eyes still wide and jaw rigid, holds her hand still and fills the glass for her, again. The bottle is empty now. Her eyes lock with his, and not for the first time, she sees her husband looking back. He doesn't say anything. He's afraid of her. That's what scares her the most; that from now on, he'll be afraid of everything. As he should be.

*

The next few days are a blur to Naruto. He walks around in his Aunt's garden, kicking the snow around. It's so cold his tears freeze before they're even out of his tear-ducts. It makes his eyes prickle and itch. He leaves the house in the morning and stays out till late afternoon when it's already getting dark, the cold is a lot less painful than the aura of madness inside.

His mother is like a ghost, tiptoeing around, whispering to herself. Whenever she sees her son, her eyes fill up with tears. And she keeps apologising, over and over again. Aunt Elisa tiptoes around right behind her, offering her coffee, stroking her hair and suggesting a nap. Elisa's husband Kauko hides in the bedroom, and only tiptoes out for a beer or a piss. Naruto can't decide which one of them is the worst. No, the worst is the funeral talk. The ground is frozen so the preparations will take longer. At least a week. More time for everyone to fuss and cry over flowers, biscuits and guest lists.

So Naruto stays outside. The cold snowy forest behind the house is his refuge. When Aunt Elisa calls him inside for lunch, he hides in a cave under a spruce tree, deep beneath the snow-burdened lower branches. He stands under young pine trees and kicks the trunk until the snow falls down from the braches, on him. He ventures on the frozen lake, jumps up and down till it hurts to breathe, half wishing the ice would give in. He would like to die drowning. Iruka Umino, his scout-leader from years ago, once told him that drowning was dangerous because for the last few seconds, you actually feel happy and don't want to be saved. Kiba called him a liar, but Naruto secretly liked the idea.

*

Naruto first starts paying attention to the visitors on Saturday afternoon. It's -27 outside so he's opted for an Uuno Turhapuro movie instead, curled up in the old leather chair with a plate of "pizzawich", white toast with ketchup and cheese heated into bubbling mush in the microwave. He's feeling deceptively normal, despite the three ghosts creeping around. He knows he's far from fine with the situation, the fall will come, it's boiling inside him, barely out of reach. But for now, it's ok. He twirls his fork to get the long string of melted cheese into his mouth in one go and blows bubbles in his milk. Mom will like that, that's what he used to do when he was about five.

The annoying jingle of the doorbell draws his attention back to reality. Elisa closes the door to the foyer, hiding the guest from Naruto before opening the front door. Naruto can hear their voices, muffled but still audible. It's a man, no, two men. Aunt Elisa starts off in her usual quiet, compliant tone, but get's more and more agitated as the conversation grows longer. It's clear she was hoping to get rid of the guests as quickly as possible. In the end she's almost screaming. The men keep calm, but do not seem to want to leave. Suddenly the foyer door is pushed open so hard it hits the wall with a bang, and the men come in. Naruto hides behind the back of the chair. Something tells him he'll be told to get out of the room if someone remembers he's there.

Uncle Kauko stumbles up the stairs as fast as his bad leg allows him. "Helvettiä?!" He stops to catch his breath. "You again! What do you want now? How dare you keep harassing us like this!" Again? They must've been here when Naruto was out in the forest. He risks a peek. There are three men, actually, two in the living room and one still in the foyer. One of them moves to meet Uncle Kauko at the top of the stairs. His long, greasy-looking black hair is falling over the fluffy fur collar of his brown suede coat and he's smiling, showing at least three gold teeth. "I am sorry. I do not wish to bother you." His Russian accent is thick, but he speaks surprisingly good Finnish. "But I worry about you, I cannot help it."

Uncle Kauko is now standing in front of him, panting slightly. In his old blue sweat pants and faded Karjala t-shirt he forms an ironic contrast to the flashy stranger. "Well we're still fine. No need to worry. You can leave." Suede coat man laughs. Low, soft laugh, almost like he's purring. "Oh, come on. We bring vodka. You drink with us. You and your wife. And her beautiful, sad sister. And we talk."

The taller man behind him takes a step closer. He's in all black, no jewellery, nothing distinguishable. His dark mullet is slicked back but escaping in the front, his face is stern, expressionless, and his hands buried deep in his jacket-pockets. The third one is younger, Naruto'd guess in his late twenties. His eyes are deep-set with dark bags underneath which together with his permanently downcast gaze making him look extremely tired.

"I don't drink", Uncle Kauko says. Naruto hears the wavering in his voice. His uncle is not a fighter. Suede coat man knows this as well and smiles again. "I have never heard of a Finnish man who does not drink vodka." He pats Naruto's uncle on the shoulder, and Kauko seems to bend lower and lower with each pat. The short haired Russian forces out a small laugh and moves to let them past him into the kitchen. Naruto has to lean forward to see them.

Suddenly he realises the youngest man is staring straight at him. His eyes are not tired at all, they're piercingly sharp, predator eyes, freezing him to the spot. The man steps out of the foyer and says something in a low voice. Suede coat man turns, gives Uncle Kauko a slight push so that he stumbles against the short haired man, and walks over to Naruto's hide out with brisk, determined strides.

"Well, well, well. I do not think we have met." He grabs Naruto's wrist with an iron grip and pulls him out of the chair. "You must be Minato's son, look just like him." The man's eyes are light hazel, almost yellow. He leans closer to study Naruto's face, no longer smiling. "Just like him…" His eyes narrow, he seems to be searching for something in Naruto's eyes. Or in his brain, by the feel of it.

The moment passes and the man drags Naruto over to the rest of the group. Uncle Kauko's head is down, and he's shaking a little. "смотри Фугаку, старый фантом._._" Short haired man looks at Naruto and nods. The youngest man is still staring at him. His eyes are normal, dark gray, but even more unnerving that the crazy yellow ones of his captor. Naruto feels the hand on his shoulder pushing towards the foyer. "No", Uncle Kauko whispers. "No, you can stay.. just, don't take the boy." "Just for a little drive. We bring him back."

"Naruto!" Kushina is standing by the bedroom door on the other side of the living room. "No!" she scrambles forward, spilling Naruto's forgotten milk all over the carpet. "I'm here. It's me you want. Not him."

Suede coat man opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted by the front door. The young Russian slides out of the way as the hulky figure of Naruto's grandfather pushes past him. "Orochimaru", he whispers. He pushes Naruto away from the stranger and grabs the fur collar of the suede coat.

"Ah, Jiraya. Just the man I want."

"Evidently." Naruto has never seen his grand father this scary. The usually good-humoured, joker of a man is someone completely different now, someone who can match up to Orochimaru the Suede coat man. "Really, Jiraya. We come to pay our respects. Minato was dear to me, like my own son, you know that." Orochimaru smiles demurely up to Jiraya. "We drink. We talk. Then we go."

It is a very odd tea party. Elisa pulls herself together and makes some coffee, and even the shaking Kushina is escorted into the kitchen. Naruto ends up sitting between Grandpa Jiraya and the short haired Russian, who has been introduced by Jiraya as Fugaku Uchiha. Unfortunately this puts him directly opposite Fukagu's son, Itachi, the one with the creepy eyes. Naruto stares at his plate and nibbles on a Domino cookie, trying to make some sense of the rapid conversation in Russian. He had no idea his grandfather was fluent in Russian, or that his mother understood any. Kushina's family was finlandssvensk, her first language was Swedish. But from her reactions he can tell she understands every word. Naruto only understands one. "Minato."

The vodka is over and done with and Jiraya seems to have reached some sort of an understanding with the Russians. They get up, thank Kushina lavishly for her hospitality and get ready to leave.

Before exiting the room, Itachi stops by Naruto's chair. Naruto knows he shouldn't look up, but he can't help it. Those mesmerising eyes hold his for a long time. Then the man slowly lifts his leather gloved hand, gently strokes Naruto's hair, and smiles. "Till next time."

*

Grandpa Jiraya "happens to be in the neighbourhood and just decided to drop in" more regularly after that Saturday. He's his old loud self again, but Naruto can see through the act now. He wonders if the clues were always there, if he was just too naïve to notice. Jiraya spends a lot of time with him, they build a miniature Spanish Armada battle ship, put together a Toka glider plane for the summer, which is too easy for Naruto who's already built an RC one with Kiba nearly from scratch, and play countless games of Marjapussi.

All the time Jiraya is talking good-natured nonsense to him. But soon Naruto starts to see a pattern. After they've covered a topic, there's a mention of Dad. Something seemingly trivial, and yet Jiraya's tone makes it the most meaningful part of the conversation.

"No perkeles, were these things always this small?" Jiraya curses when the thin body of the glider once again refuses to slip into the assigned groove in the tail part. They've set out an impressive workshop on the downstairs living room floor, Elisa got yelled at more than she deserved when she innocently tried to make her way to the washing machine on the other side.

"I'm wasting all our glue."

"It's not the plane, it's you. You need glasses," Naruto says, keeping his eyes on the red silk paper he's carefully fitting onto the wing. "Haa, don't you start, kiddo, if there's one thing our family doesn't have it's eye problems!" He leaves the glider be and leans back against the wall. Naruto stops working as well, but keeps his eyes down. It's coming.

"You know, way back before you were born, we used to have insane Midsummer's parties at the Pulkkilanharju cottage. Insane, hahaha, oh those were the days. And we had a darts competition every year. Now, your dad-"

Here it comes.

"- won every single time. Tsunade and Kushina tried to get him drunk so he'd lose his aim. But no. He always won."

Naruto looks up at his grandfather. The old man is staring at the dying flames in the fireplace, chewing on his lower lip. His white hair is glowing red and gold.

"Always had his eye right on the bull's eye. Better than me, he was. So much better. But sometimes he ignored everything around the target. He focused too much. Things don't always happen straight in front of you..."

Jiraya's eyes are wide open, he's still fixed on the fire, but seeing something else entirely.

"Where do they happen, then?" Naruto whispers, terrified of breaking the spell but desperate to hear more, something that'd make sense of everything. His grandfather turns his head slowly, looking through Naruto's left temple for a long moment before finally meeting his grandson's eyes.

"What?"

"Where do they happen… the things.. that aren't in front of…" Naruto is still whispering.

Jiraya is quiet, still staring at him. Something in that stare reminds Naruto of Orochimaru the Suede coat man.

"They're hidden. They have to be, unfortunately. It makes things a little difficult. But don't worry, I'll help you find them when the time comes."

Jiraya gets up stiffly, rubbing his knees.

"Alright. I reckon your aunt might have dinner ready. Leave that thing to dry."

Naruto is so disappointed he feels burningly angry. Stupid granddad, stupid riddles.

*

July 26th 2008

The railway station of Turku is strangely lively for a Saturday morning. Kakashi Hatake is on his fourth cup of bitter take-away coffee, and the caffeine is making the excited knot in his stomach bigger and tighter. He's exhausted, but was too anxious to sleep in the train. He gets out on the platform and stretches thoroughly before hoisting the large bag onto his shoulder and heading through the terminal to the parking space in the front. His ride should be there by now.

At the front door he spills some coffee on himself when a group of about twenty teens in strange costumes barge in as he's about to exit. "Vauhtia!" the one in the front yells at her companions. She is wearing a ridiculous yellow wig and the biggest shoes Kakashi has ever seen, like the ones Mickey Mouse wears. The rest look weird too. He gets hit by a strange purple rope hanging out from a backpack as the owner dashes past him. "Me myöhästytää!" The rest of the kids squeal back at their leader and scramble towards the platform. Kakashi rubs his eyes. He can't start seeing things now. From this point on, it's all about the details.

"Herr Hatake! Willkommen nach Turku!" A tired-but-cheery-looking young man with an ugly headscarf is standing next to a battered old Mazda, waving at him. Gott sei Dank. Kakashi strides over to him, trying to adjust the strap of the bag to hide the newly acquired coffee stains.

"You speak German?" What a polite way to start. The man smiles apologetically. "No, I'm afraid that's all I know. I do speak Danish, if that's any help?" "English it is, then," Kakashi says and the man laughs and offers his hand to him. "Genma Shiranui. Your designated driver." They shake hands and get in the car, heading southwest through the city centre, towards the harbour.

***

Ok, did that make sense to anyone? Don't worry, the angst will stop eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore Finnish spoken with a Russian accent, I wish I knew how to bring it across in EnglishX( The languages are confusing, I know. I hope you can keep up. In the beginning when they speak English, in the world of the fic it's all Finnish. Naruto doesn't speak Russian, that's why the Russian bits are in Russian. In the little bit in the end they're actually speaking English, because Genma is Swedish and Kakashi is German and neither speaks the other's language. Finnish bits are in Finnish because Kakashi doesn't understand Finnish. It'll get even more confusing as it goes on, I'm afraid, but I'll try to keep it as simple as possible.

Hollola= a small town/village in the middle of nowhere  
Helvettiä?! = what the hell?!  
perkeles= goddamnit, or something similar, a less serious way of showing annoyance  
смотри Фугаку, старый фантом.= Look, Fukagu, an old ghost  
Karjala= the best beer in Finland (ok not really, Urho is better. But no one wears Urho tees)  
"pizzawich" is © my own foolish little brother  
Dominos= the Finnish equivalent of Oreo's  
Marjapussi/ Bag-o-berries= a traditional card game  
7/26/08 there was a big anime convention in Tampere, my home town, and the people coming from Turku had to take a very early train:)


End file.
